After two posts blathering on about the creeping chaos of demoniac meta-physics and planar cosmology, it's time to get down to practicalities.
Design Goals
In a recent episode of the Monster Man podcast, James talked about the "Creatures of the Warp" and the importance of making chaotic outsiders from beyond normal space, feel truly alien. In game terms, they should break the rules, and do things that other monsters can't do. They can't be just another stack of hit points.
Another priority for me in exploring demons in my setting is showing their mutability. Not only are demons existentially corrupting to everything they touch, they themselves are also changed. Consequently, once you start finding demons, you'll see lots of mixtures of demons and other things. Demon-dragons, demon-possessed sorcerers, demon-animals, demon-oozes... and on and on.
Since I'm prioritizing, reality-bending and inconsistency, I can't just pull a standard stat blocks for Tanar'ri.
A Font of Ideation
I need a way to make a bunch of unique demons and what better way than with a big random table. It can't be too prescriptive and I want something I can run on the fly, so a spark table (a la Chris McDowall and the Grand d666) seems to fit.
My recent entry into the One Page Dungeon Contest, Kill Several Demons, featured a demon-infested level of a barrow dungeon, and while formulating it I built a demon-centric spark table:
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| You've seen this before |
This is a great start. I'll continue to expand it until it's a true 6x6x6 table.
An important tranche of the table that I want to reinforce is "Environmental Distortion." It's the section that contributes most of the reality-bending that makes demons distinctive. It inspired the fluid-floor powers and gravitic re-arrangement effects that make my Kill Several Demons antagonists interesting.
Already, I've used the big spark table to create several demons that I'm really happy with and I've extracted bits of it to create a sub-table for minor demons:
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| From Kill Several Demons |
I love the way this sort of table lends itself to mix & match. In that way it reminds me of the Maze Rats tables. Once I've refined my table a bit, I'll automate it like table-building hero, Michael Raston.
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| Harry Clarke |
Basic Chassis
Once I have scooped up a big schmear of chaos from my spark table, I need a mechanical skeleton to glop it onto.
I've mentioned before that I'm a big fan of the just-use-bears theory of monster design and the scarier just-use-trolls variant seems perfect for demons. The regeneration + specific vulnerabilities are basically ideal (I'll just trade out vulnerabilities as needed).
For smaller, nuisance demons (like those birthed by the table earlier in this post) I'd just scale the hit points way down.
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| jagoba.deviantart.com |
Since I'm populating craziness off a big table, if I need a monster of the demon+other-thing form, it's easy enough to swap out the troll chassis for a dragon or a pig or whatever.
A Sprinkle of Distinctive Spice
With all of this randomness, what makes a demon distinctive. What can players learn that will help them in the next fight?
Consistent Resistances:
- Magical and energy based damage. Fire, lightening etc. will have limited effect or may further empower a demon.
- Regeneration. Normal damage will heal quickly.
- Reason. Most creatures can be negotiated with... Demons aren't like that.
Vulnerabilities:
- Demons are supremely mutable and vulnerable to magic effects that change them (rather than dealing damage). Polymorph, Reduce Size etc. are very effective.
- Effects that subtract energy (i.e. cold) are better than those that add energy (i.e. fire)
- Blessed weapons. The world's churches have millennia of experience fighting demons and their gods have empowered tools for killing the extra-planar invaders.
- Base vulnerabilities: If it's a demon-zombie it will have undead vulnerabilites. If it's a demon-ooze it will have ooze vulnerabilities. If it's a demon-ghost it will have ghost vulnerabilities... You get the picture.
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| Denis Boutemie |
Conclusion
Demons are like canapes and can be assembled from a simple recipe. Apply a reality-warping filling (from the spark table) onto a sturdy cracker (just-use-trolls) and garnish with a couple familiar elements to maintain consistency. Voila!
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